Collegeville Teacher Enters Guilty Plea in Molestation Cases

A former teacher's aide at a parochial school in Montgomery County, Pa. has had a change of heart and tearfully admitted today to molesting several young boys at the school over three years.

KYW's Brad Segall reports that Vito Granieri (above) originally pleaded "no contest" last April to charges of molesting three boys at St. Eleanor's Catholic School in Collegeville.

But now, after he was charged with assaulting two other boys, he's changed his plea to guilty to molesting all five kids and has accepted responsibility.

Defense attorney Marc Steinberg says the decision came after the 46-year-old man spoke with his lawyers and mental health professionals:

"Here's a father and a husband and a son, somebody involved in the community, really just repudiating his entire lifetime and just admitting that he's a pedophile."

Steinberg says his client is remorseful, but Montgomery County prosecutor Samantha Cauffman says Granieri used his status in the community to molest the boys and then call them liars.

She calls his change of heart "damage control" and plans to ask for substantial jail time.